A blog about software engineering and other topics.written by Jonathan Dodds

March 17, 2004

Evacuation Day

Today is Evacuation Day in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Evacuation Day commemorates the withdrawal of British forces from the city of Boston during the American Revolution.

General Washington had laid siege to Boston but the British were well supplied by sea. Under cover of darkness on the night of March 4, 1776 American forces seized and fortified Dorchester Heights with fifty-nine cannon. The artillery’s commanding position eventually convinced General Howe, the British commander, to abandon the city. The British sailed to Nova Scotia and American troops entered the city on March 17, 1776.